Boston University College of Fine Arts professor emeritus Gardner Read died last month from complications with pneumonia. He was 92.
Read, who composed more than 150 works of music, came to Boston University in 1948 and taught in the CFA music department until his retirement in 1978.
CFA Dean Walt Meissner said Read’s exceptional talents and love of music will continue to influence those who he taught.
“Gardner Read was a consummate educator who shared his unique talent and passion for music with students for three decades,” he said. “As a composer, and quite a prolific one, his spirit will live on through his work and the work of the young composers he mentored throughout his career.”
Composition and Theory Department Chairman Richard Cornell also commented on Read’s ability as an educator and musician.
“He was a terrific teacher and an excellent composer,” Cornell said. “He was very interested in advances in music. He wrote an important book about advances in music, which is still used by BU students.”
Cornell said Read’s unique way of creating music will have a lasting effect on the university’s music department.
“He certainly left a concern for the craft of composing,” he said. “He had a craftsman-like approach.”
Margery Kennelly, a musician and Read’s neighbor at his home in Manchester, said Read was a giving person in regards to his knowledge about music.
“He was a very generous man in terms of his music and understanding,” she said.
Read was born on Jan. 2, 1913, in Evanston, Ill. He studied at Northwestern University’s School of Music and at the Eastman School of Music. He died Nov. 10.
After his retirement, Read continued to practice music.
“In the later part of his life, he studied model music,” Cornell said.
Read composed music throughout his career. Kennelly specifically remembers one composition that was influenced by a trip to South America.
“He had taken this trip on a huge ship and went to South America,” she said. “He wrote a symphony, or a series of short pieces that were very influenced by his time in South America.”
Read also spent time on his music at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H. The MacDowell Colony is a non-profit organization that provides a space for artists to create, according to Colony Communications Director Brendan Tapley.
“People come from all over the country to work on their art,” he said. “He was here in 1936 and had nine residencies from 1936-1953.”
Gardner leaves his daughter, Cynthia Read, of Ossining, N.Y.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
